A wide variety of friction sheet feeding machines are available for feeding individual sheets from the bottom of an essentially vertical stack of sheets. Exemplary friction sheet feeding machines are shown and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,991,831, 5,143,365, 5,244,198, 5,642,877, 5,772,199 and 6,932,338.
These machines typically include (i) a tray for holding a stack of sheets in an essentially vertical position, (ii) a nip for feeding a lowermost sheet from the stack, (iii) a driven friction roller or feed belt for contacting the downward facing major surface of the lowermost sheet in the stack and pulling the lowermost sheet from underneath the sheet stack towards the nip, and (iv) a friction retard surface positioned above the driven friction roller for contacting the leading edge(s) and any exposed upward facing major surface(s) of the sheet(s) positioned directly above the lowermost sheet for retarding advancement of the sheet(s) directly above the lowermost sheet and thereby facilitating separation of the lowermost sheet from the immediately overlying sheet prior to introduction of the lowermost sheet into the feed nip.
Side guides are commonly employed on friction sheet feeding machines for providing lateral support to a sheet stack loaded onto the tray, and providing lateral guidance to sheets as they are pulled from the stack by the driven friction roller or feed belt(s) and introduced into the nip area. These side guides are commonly mounted on a laterally repositionable carriage to permit quick and easy repositioning of the side guides in order to accommodate sheets of different widths. However, because the side guides typically extend below the upper conveying surface of the feed belts in order to prevent sheets from slipping under the side guide, the feed belts often interfere with lateral repositioning of the side guides. Hence, the side guides need to be detached from the carriage prior to repositioning of the subassembly and reattached after the carriage has been repositioned.
While generally effective for facilitating lateral repositioning of the side guides, the repositioning process tends to be an awkward, cumbersome, time consuming and potentially dangerous as it involves detachment and reattachment of the side guides.
Accordingly, a need exists for laterally repositionable side guides capable of being quickly, easily and safely repositioned without requiring the use of a tool or requiring detachment of the side guides.